Table of Contents
Highlights from Medical Grand Rounds
- Managing Three Common Oncologic Emergencies
Spinal cord compression, superior vena cava syndrome, and hypercalcemia are tumor-related emergencies clinicians need to watch for in patients with malignancy.
CME Notebook
Radiology Pathology Grand Rounds
- Lytic lesion of the knee in a 27-year-old man
Right knee pain and lateral knee fullness for 3 months and chronic right ankle pain for 7 months were the presenting symptoms.
Contributions
- Severity of illness: APACHE II analysis of an ICU population
Reporting ICU outcome using APACHE II computer program criteria allows more meaningful comparisons of ICU outcome data, and enables the standardization of quality assurance programs.
- Atrial natriuretic factor and catecholamine levels during exercise in patients with and without coronary artery disease
In coronary artery disease, exercise-induced myocardial ischemia does not produce further release of ANF, suggesting that the cause of ANF release is not ischemia itself, but left ventricular dysfunction leading to increases in intracardiac pressures.
- Demographics of long-term ventilator-dependent patients outside the intensive care unit
The ICU is the traditional setting for long-term ventilator care, but the demand for more cost-effective use of ICU beds has hospitals looking at other settings.
- Signal-averaged electrocardiography for detection of ventricular tachycardia using fast Fourier transform filtering on a standard ECG cart
This new means of generating signal-averaged ECG data compares favorably with bidirectional Butterworth filter or finite impulse response filtering techniques in predicting the inducibility of ventricular tachycardia in the electrophysiology lab.
- Perioperative blood transfusion and survival of breast cancer patients after modified radical mastectomy
Does perioperative blood transfusion compromise longterm survival in cancer patients? Although a firm link is not yet established, early findings and current knowledge of transfusion-associated risks advise caution.
Review
- Experimental limbic epilepsy: models, pathophysiologic concepts, and clinical relevance
Complex partial seizures originating in the temporal lobe are common in epilepsy patients. Drug treatment is often ineffective. What predisposes a patient to these seizures? How do they occur? Animal studies are providing clues to the puzzle.
Case Report
- Orf: case report and literature review
This generally benign and self-limited condition requires early clinical recognition to avoid an extensive diagnostic workup or unnecessary surgical intervention.
